A through hole (114) is formed in a wafer (104) comprising a semiconductor substrate (110). A seed layer (610) is sputtered on the bottom surface of the wafer. The seed is not deposited over the through hole's sidewalls adjacent the top surface of the wafer. A conductor (810) is electroplated into the through hole. In another embodiment, a seed is deposited into an opening in a wafer through a dry film resist mask (1110). The dry film resist overhangs the edges of the opening, so the seed is not deposited over the opening's sidewalls adjacent the top surface of the wafer. In another embodiment, a dielectric (120) is formed in an opening in a semiconductor substrate (110) by a non-conformal physical vapor deposition (PVD) process that deposits the dielectric on the sidewalls but not the bottom of the opening. A seed (610) is formed on the bottom by electroless plating. A conductor (810) is electroplated on the seed. In another embodiment, a dielectric (2910) is formed in the opening to cover the entire surface of the opening. A non-conformal layer (120) is deposited by PVD over the sidewalls but not the bottom of the opening. The dielectric (2910) is etched off the bottom with the non-conformal layer (120) as a mask. A seed (610) is formed on the bottom by electroless plating. The non-conformal layer can be formed by electroplating. It can be tantalum deposited by electroplating, then anodized. Other embodiments are also provided.
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1. A manufacturing method comprising:
forming an opening in a first surface of a body comprising a semiconductor substrate, wherein the opening extends into the semiconductor substrate;
forming a seed for electroplating a conductor into the opening;
electroplating the conductor into the opening, wherein the electroplating is initiated on the seed at a distance from the first surface of the body but not over the opening's sidewalls adjacent the first surface of the body, wherein before the electroplating operation, a through hole is formed in the semiconductor substrate at the location of the opening; and
forming a conductive layer over a second surface of the body;
wherein forming the opening and the through hole comprises:
forming the opening in the first surface of the body such that the opening does not go through the body;
after forming the conductive layer, extending the opening to form the through hole and expose the conductive layer from the first surface of the body;
wherein the seed electrically contacts the conductive layer in the opening;
wherein the method further comprises coupling the conductive layer to an electrical potential for the electroplating operation, wherein during the electroplating operation the seed is coupled to the electrical potential through the conductive layer.
2. The method of
4. The method of
obtaining the body; and then
forming the seed on the body.
7. The method of
8. The method of
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The present application is a division U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/055,940, filed Feb. 10, 2005, now abandoned which is a division of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/410,929, filed Apr. 9, 2003, now U.S. Pat No. 6,897,148, incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to electroplating and electroless plating of conductive materials into openings. In some embodiments, the plated materials are used to form through hole interconnects in integrated circuits.
Fabrication of through hole interconnects in integrated circuits using electroplating has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,184,060 issued Feb. 6, 2001 to Siniaguine, and is illustrated in
Then the wafer is thinned by an etch of the back side 104B (
This section summarizes some features of the invention. Other features are described in the subsequent sections. The invention is defined by the appended claims.
Metal deposition by electroplating offers the advantages of high throughput and low tool cost. Electroless plating has similar advantages. The present invention provides fabrication processes involving electroplating or electroless plating of metal or other conductive materials into openings.
When metal is electroplated into an opening, the plating proceeds faster at the top edges of the opening, and the opening may close at the top before it is filled. The undesirable result is formation of voids in the electroplated metal. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,399,479 issued Jan. 4, 2002 to Chen et al., entitled “PROCESSES TO IMPROVE ELECTROPLATING FILL”.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the electroplating operation is initiated at a distance from the top surface of the wafer but not over the opening's sidewalls adjacent to the top surface of the wafer. For example, in one embodiment, a through hole is formed in the wafer, and then a seed layer is sputtered on the bottom surface of the wafer. The through hole is open at the bottom during the seed layer deposition, but the seed layer is not deposited on the opening's sidewalls adjacent the top surface of the wafer. Therefore, the subsequent electroplating operation is not initiated adjacent the top surface. In the electroplating operation, the seed layer is connected to a cathode terminal of a power supply. The connection can be made at the edge of the wafer on the bottom surface of the wafer.
In another embodiment, an opening is formed in the top surface of the wafer. Then a dry film mask (e.g. dry film resist) is applied to the top surface and patterned to expose an inner portion of the opening in the wafer. Then the seed layer is deposited on the top of the wafer and into the opening. The edges of the dry film mask overhang the opening and do not allow the seed layer to be deposited over the opening's sidewalls adjacent the top surface of the wafer.
In another embodiment, the seed layer is deposited on the top surface of the wafer without a mask. Then another layer (a “first layer”) is formed over the seed layer by a non-conformal deposition process, e.g. sputtering. The first layer covers the seed layer on the opening's sidewalls adjacent the top surface of the wafer, but does not cover the seed layer at a distance from the top surface of the wafer. The first layer does not allow the electroplating to be initiated over the sidewalls adjacent the top surface.
In some embodiments, the first layer is formed before the seed. Then the seed is deposited by electroless plating onto the semiconductor material at the bottom of the opening. The seed does not form on the first layer adjacent the top surface of the wafer.
Other embodiments and variations are described below.
The invention is not limited to formation of through hole interconnects in wafers that include semiconductor substrates. Some embodiments form through hole interconnects in dielectric substrates used for integrated circuit packaging (e.g. in ball grid array substrates), and in other bodies of material. Some embodiments are used to form contacts and interconnects in a dielectric layer formed over a semiconductor substrate (e.g. damascene interconnects). Other features of the invention are described below. The invention is defined by the appended claims.
Transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, interconnect lines, or other devices and circuits, or portions thereof, may have been formed in wafer 104.
This structure is exemplary and not limiting. We will assume for illustration that the top side of substrate 110 is an active side which contains active areas of transistors or other devices, but this is not necessary. The active areas and both active and passive devices can be formed anywhere in the wafer. In some embodiments, the wafer has no active areas. Also, any processing steps involved in fabrication of devices in the wafer can be postponed to a later stage or can be combined or intermixed with the steps forming the through hole interconnects. The elements 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, 360 are not shown in some of the figures.
Also, the terms “top” and “bottom” are used for convenience of description. The substrate and other structures discussed herein can be positioned with the “top” at the bottom or in any other orientation.
Opening 114 is etched in the top surface of wafer 104 and substrate 110. If other layers (such as layer 340) have been formed over the substrate, these layers are removed at the location of the opening. In the example of
Opening 114 does not go through substrate 110 at the stage of
Opening 114 is shown as having sloped rounded sidewalls, but the sidewalls may be vertical, rounded or non-rounded, or have some other geometry. In
The opening may be formed by a masked etch, a laser, or in any other way known or to be invented. In one embodiment, a deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) is used, with the opening being defined by a photoresist or aluminum mask (not shown). DRIE may be followed by an atmospheric pressure plasma etch to widen the opening at the top relative to the bottom. A suitable etch is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,184,060 issued Feb. 6, 2001 to Siniaguine, incorporated herein by reference. In another embodiment (
In one embodiment (see
Further processing will be described with respect to the structure of
Dielectric layer 120 is formed over the substrate. We will assume for the sake of illustration that the dielectric 120 is silicon dioxide formed by thermal oxidation or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to a thickness of 1 μm. Other materials (e.g. silicon nitride), and other dimensions and processes can also be used.
Then the wafer is thinned (
In some embodiments, before the wafer thinning, a protective layer (not shown) is formed on top of the wafer, possibly filling the opening 114, to protect the top surface of the wafer and the dielectric 120 on the sidewalls of the opening during the wafer thinning process. If the wafer is thinned by an atmospheric pressure fluorine plasma etch, the protective layer can be polyimide. In some embodiments, the protective layer is an adhesive tape deposited on top of the wafer, for example, a high temperature polyimide tape. The tape does not fill the opening 114, but the etch is terminated quickly after forming a hole in dielectric 120 at the bottom of the opening, so the dielectric removal from the sidewalls is minimized.
In one embodiment, the substrate 110 thickness A1 =A-5 μm after the wafer thinning, where A is the initial depth of the opening (see
In the embodiment of
If a protective layer was used on top of the wafer during the backside etch, this layer is removed. A seed layer 610 (
The opening 114 widens from the bottom up, so substantially no copper 610 or TiW 614 is deposited over the sidewalls of opening 114. Some copper and TiW may be deposited over the sidewalls near the bottom of the opening. In one embodiment, the opening width B=60 μm at the top of the wafer (see
If the opening does not widen towards the top, some copper can be deposited on the sidewalls, but the copper can be restricted to a region below the top surface of substrate 110 because a sputtered copper layer can be deposited non-conformally. The aspect ratio A1/B can be increased not to allow the copper to reach the top surface of substrate 110. Also, the deposition angle can be made closer to 90° using known techniques such as a long throw reactor, collimated deposition, ionized deposition, or other techniques, known or to be invented. See for example “Handbook of Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology” edited by Y. Nishi et al. (2000), pages 402-409, incorporated herein by reference. See also the description below in connection with
If the seed material is deposited at the top of the opening, it can be removed from the top by any suitable technique (e.g. a wet etch or de-plating). The seed material will not be entirely removed from the bottom of the wafer because the seed layer is thicker at the bottom.
A protective layer 704 (
The electroplating operation is performed in a suitable electroplating liquid 724. The anode terminal is schematically shown at 730 (the anode terminal can be as large as the wafer as know in the art.) Seed layer 610 is exposed in opening 114 at the bottom of the wafer. A conductive layer 810 (
Layer 810 can be plated to any height. It can fill the opening partially or completely, and can protrude out of the opening on top of the wafer if desired. In the structure of
In the embodiment of
Layers 704, 610, 614 are removed. In one embodiment, copper 610 and TiW 614 are removed by a wet etch. A suitable protective layer (not shown) is formed on top of the wafer before the etch of copper 610 to protect copper 810 at the top of the wafer. The protective layer also protects other elements (such as the elements 350, 360 in
Then the wafer is thinned again (see
The protruding portion 810C of layer 810 on the bottom provides a contact area that can be bonded to a contact pad 920 on another substrate 930 (e.g. another wafer or die or a wiring substrate). The attachment is facilitated by the layer 810 protruding out on the bottom of the wafer. Dielectric 120 protrudes out of substrate 110 as noted above. This is desirable if the contact 810C is attached to contact pad 920 with solder or a conductive epoxy because the protruding dielectric 120 makes it more difficult for the solder or epoxy to short the contact 810C to silicon 110. Also, in the particular embodiment of
In one embodiment, instead of thinning the whole bottom surface of the wafer as described above, the silicon is removed from the bottom of the wafer with a masked etch. Then additional dielectric and conductive layers are formed on the wafer backside to redistribute the backside contacts so that the position of the backside contacts would not necessarily correspond to the position of openings 114. See the aforementioned U.S. patent publication 2002-113321-A1. The invention is not limited to any particular backside processing.
If opening 114 is formed by DRIE or with a laser, the opening's sidewalls can be rough. A 1 μm roughness is easily achievable, and a higher roughness is possible. The sidewalls of oxide layer 120 will also be rough. Consequently, layer 810 is anchored inside the opening 114. A good adhesion between the layers 810 and 120 is unnecessary.
Dry film resist 1110 (
Seed layer 610 is deposited on the active side of the wafer. In one embodiment, the layer 610 is copper formed by PVD (e.g. sputtering) to a thickness of about 100 Å. Seed layer 610 is deposited on the bottom and sidewalls of layer 1010 in opening 114, but layer 610 is not deposited on the top sidewall portions of layer 1010 near the top of the wafer due to the overhanging edges of resist 1110. The portion of layer 610 in the opening is thus below the top surface of the substrate 110. Layer 610 is also deposited on top of resist 1110.
Alternatively (see
In either case (
Then the wafer is thinned from the backside by any of the techniques described above in connection with
Other backside processing can be performed as described above (e.g. additional dielectric can be formed on the wafer backside).
Then resist 1110 is conformally deposited to a suitable thickness (e.g. 5 μm) and patterned as described above in connection with
Seed layers 1010.2, 1010.1 and dielectric 120 are etched away through the hole in resist 1110. Then the resist 1110 and the seed layers 1010.2, 1010.1 are stripped away. The resulting structure is shown in
Metal 610 (
Suitable metals 610 include nickel, titanium, cobalt, vanadium, and possibly others. Nickel can be plated on silicon in a plating solution available from Transene Company Inc. of Danvers, Mass. This process provides an ohmic contact between the nickel and the silicon 110. Other processes, known or to be invented, may also be suitable.
Metal 810 (
In the plating operation, metal 810 preferentially grows from the bottom of the opening. Therefore, the opening is less likely to close on the top during the deposition, so the formation of voids in metal 810 is less probable.
Metal 810 can be formed to fill the opening. The wafer will have a substantially planar top surface. Alternatively, metal 810 can be deposited to fill the opening only partially, or on the contrary to overfill and protrude from the opening, as desired.
The wafer backside is processed to expose the metal 610 and/or 810 at the bottom. The backside processing can be performed by the techniques described above in connection with
Opening 114 (
Silicon dioxide 120 (
Then a hole 2210 (
As noted above, the etch of opening 114 (
Dry film resist 2404 (
Adhesion promoting layer 2410 (optional) and seed layer 610 are formed over the active side of the wafer. In one embodiment, layer 2410 is a 0.1 μm thick layer of TiW, and layer 610 is a 0.1 μm thick layer of copper, both formed one after the other by PVD (e.g. sputtering) without breaking the vacuum. Both layers are present on the bottom and sidewalls of oxide 120 in opening 114. These layers are below the top surface of the wafer. In
In another variation (
If the electroplating cannot be performed on the material of layer 2030 (e.g. layer 2030 is aluminum), the protective layer 704 can be omitted.
Layers 704, 2030, 2020, 2010 are removed. The wafer is thinned by a technique such as described above in connection with
Now another fabrication process will be described. Opening 114 (
Dielectric layer 120 (
Due to the non-conformal step coverage, dielectric 120 is not deposited on the bottom surface of opening 114. Silicon 110 remains exposed on the bottom surface, and possibly on the sidewalls near the bottom, even if the layer 120 is not patterned in opening 114 (i.e. one does not need to perform a masked etch of dielectric 120 to remove the dielectric 120 from the bottom of opening 110). Layer 120 can optionally be patterned outside of opening 114.
Dielectric 120 is continuous from the top of substrate 110 down to some depth C which is at least as large, and possibly larger, than the final substrate thickness ThF (after thinning). The minimal thickness W of dielectric 120 on the sidewalls through the depth ThF is sufficient to insulate the substrate 110 from metal 810 (
To ensure that the dielectric 120 is not deposited on the bottom of the opening, one can adjust the opening's width B and depth A. The width B can be made small, and the depth A can be made large, to provide a high aspect ratio. In some embodiments in which the opening has vertical sidewalls, A=150 μm, B=60 μm, and ThF=100 μm. In some embodiments, dielectric 120 is 1 μm thick on top of the wafer, and the width W is 0.2 μm.
The molecules of dielectric 120 approach the wafer at some incident angles α. (The molecules' trajectories are shown by arrows.) To avoid deposition on the bottom of opening 114, the angles α should preferably be greater than some minimal angle α0. One technique believed to increase the angles α consists in using a conical target 2810 (
Another technique for increasing the angles α involves placing the wafer farther from the target so that the molecules of dielectric 120 that travel at angles smaller than α0 will be unlikely to reach the wafer (a “long throw” PVD system). In another embodiment, a collimator is placed between the target and the wafer to catch the molecules moving at angles smaller than α0. These techniques are described in “Handbook of Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology” edited by Y. Nishi et al. (2000), pages 402-404, incorporated herein by reference. Different techniques can be combined, and other techniques, known or to be invented, can also be used.
In some embodiments, dielectric 120 gets to the bottom of opening 114 but does not cover all of the silicon on the bottom. Some silicon remains accessible for electroless plating of metal 610 (
Metal 610 (
Metal 810 (
Metal 810 can be formed to fill the opening. The wafer will have a substantially planar top surface. Alternatively, metal 810 can be deposited to fill the opening only partially, or on the contrary to overfill and protrude from the opening, as desired.
Layer 810 can be a conductive non-metal layer.
In some embodiments, layers 610 and 810 are a single layer deposited in a single electroless plating or electroplating operation.
Other layers are formed as needed to fabricate desired circuitry. In the example of
Then the wafer is thinned from the backside (
In some embodiments, layer 610 is solderable, e.g. gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, or their combinations or alloys. If layer 610 is not solderable, layer 810 may include two or more sub-layers with the bottom sub-layer being solderable. For example, layer 610 can be titanium, cobalt, or vanadium, and layer 810 can include a thin layer of gold or silver as the bottom sub-layer, and may also include another metal, e.g. aluminum or tungsten, as the upper sub-layer. Layer 610 can be removed during or after the wafer thinning. The bottom sub-layer of layer 810 will protrude out of dielectric 120. In some embodiments, layer 810 includes more than two sub-layers. If the bottom sub-layer or sub-layers are not solderable, the bottom sub-layer or sub-layers are removed during or after the wafer thinning to expose a solderable sub-layer.
In
Then layer 120 is deposited by PVD as described above in connection with
Layer 120 can be any material, not necessarily dielectric, that can be used as a mask for patterning the layer 3410. Layer 3410 is etched away at the bottom of opening 120, and possibly at the sidewalls near the bottom. See
Then the fabrication proceeds as in
As shown in
In some embodiments, layer 120 serves as a barrier to interdiffusion between layer 810 and dielectric 3410. For example, layer 120 can be tantalum oxide (Ta2O5), and layer 810 can be nickel.
Dielectric 3410 insulates the conductive layers 610, 810 from substrate 110. Therefore, the requirements on the insulating properties of layer 120 can be relaxed. Layer 120 can be a conductive layer, or can be a low quality dielectric. This is advantageous because in some embodiments, the PVD process by which the layer 120 is deposited does not allow as much control over the thickness and quality of the deposited layer as the process that forms the layer 3410.
In
In
Then layer 810 (
Dielectric 120 can be removed or otherwise patterned at the top of the wafer. See
In
If metal 120 forms on the bottom of opening 114, an etch can be conducted removing the metal 120 from the bottom and attacking, but not completely removing the metal 120 on the sidewalls. No photolithography or other alignment techniques are needed in the opening. The etch does not have to be selective to metal 610 if metal 610 is sufficiently thick.
Metal 120 should have a higher electrochemical potential than the metal 610 for the next step (anodizing).
Metal 120 is anodized in a suitable bath. Oxide 4210 forms on the surface. If metal 120 is tantalum, then layer 4210 is tantalum oxide, primarily Ta2O5. Exemplary tantalum anodization processes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,436,504 issued Jul. 25, 1995, incorporated herein by reference. An exemplary thickness of layer 4210 is 10-100 nm. Due to the higher electrochemical potential of metal 120, the oxide growth does not occur on metal 610. If some oxide grows on metal 610, it can be removed by an etch that does not have to be selective to oxide 4210 due to the greater thickness of oxide 4210.
Then metal 810 (
Oxide 4210, metal 120 and metal 610 can be removed from the top of the wafer or patterned as desired. Other circuit elements can be formed as needed (e.g. to connect the metal 810 to transistor elements 310, 320 or other devices). In some embodiments, the layers 4210, 120 provide a diffusion barrier for conductive lines formed from metal 610. The diffusion barrier prevents interdiffusion between metal 610 and subsequently deposited layers (which can be polysilicon or silicon dioxide for example). The wafer can be thinned from the backside to form through hole interconnects and backside contact pads as in
The embodiments described above illustrate but do not limit the invention. For example, layers 610, 810 can be non-metal conductive layers. In
Halahan, Patrick A., Kao, Sam, Lan, Bosco, Savastiouk, Sergey, Siniaguine, Oleg
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